Middle East Broadcasting Center

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The Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC)
مركز تلفزيون الشرق الأوسط

Type	Broadcast radio and television
Country	United Arab Emirates Saudi Arabia
Availability	Middle East, Europe and Africa (via Arabsat, Hotbird and other Arab broadcasting satellites)
Owner	Sheikh Waleed Bin Ibrahim Al Brahim
Launch date	1991 (television)
Website	www.mbc.net

Middle East Broadcasting Centre or popularly known as MBC (Arabic مركز تلفزيون الشرق الأوسط) was launced on September 18, 1991, is a Saudi-run company broadcasting a mix of free-to-air news and entertainment channels via satellite. MBC has recently moved its headquarters to Dubai Media City.

1 History
2 Media channels
3 External links
- 3.1 Channels websites

[edit] History

MBC's older logo

MBC was launched on 18 September 1991, becoming the first broadcaster to create a free-to-air, 24-hour television network across the Arab world, using satellite technology in the Middle East. MBC has remained privately owned, managed by a group of visionary businessmen and shareholders, including chairman and CEO Sheikh Waleed Bin Ibrahim Al Brahim. The shareholder list has never been verified, and most knowledgable people in the region could only believe the Saudi royal family has enough capital to keep the company afloat. Originally known as Middle East Broadcasting Corporation, MBC has grown over the last fifteen years into a multi-channel platform with a growing range of offerings for a Panaudience of very different local cultures. The round-the-clock MBC service has also appealed to the expatriate Arabic-speaking population internationally and attracted high-profile multinational advertisers.

In the early 1990s, London was the centre of international satellite TV broadcasting and MBC launched from there with entertainment programmes that were already popular in Middle East homes as well as top-rating shows from western markets, including the US and UK. The MBC News at 9PM, with its frank and wide-ranging coverage of domestic and international news, became appointment viewing for a major cross-section of the Arabic-speaking world.

As the industry developed, and the technology advancements were set to place, MBC moved closer to its audience, moving operations from London to Dubai Media City, United Arab Emirates in 2002. Since then, MBC has broadened its media base and further cemented its globally-recognised leadership in Arab news.

The headquarters of the Middle East Broadcasting Center

MBC was the first-ever, independent Arabic satellite TV station and a market leader, delivering news and quality, family entertainment programming to more than 130 million Arabic speaking people around the world. MBC is constantly building on its core strengths to add new dimensions in an ever changing and competitive world of broadcast in the Middle East. All this has led to MBC becoming the most effective pan-Arab medium to link advertisers with Arab consumers. Most content broadcast on MBC originated from the West, especially in its early history, and any sizable volume of original, Arabic language programming has not yet developed. Some people dispute the use of the word "independent" used in conjunction with most if not all Arabic language TV stations since most media operations in the region received operational funding from official or semi-official sources. Most people agree that MBC would have been bankrupt a long time ago had it not been for massive funding from the Saudi royal family. "Independent" media in the Middle East might be independent in many ways -- but not in the sense that it is independent from the ruling dynasties. There's no fourth estate in this part of the world.

MBC TV has pioneered the media revolution in the Middle East. MBC TV is an accurate representation of the Arabic culture in all its forms and shapes with the objective to fulfil people’s interests and desires by offering them high quality and exclusive programs.

[edit] Media channels

[edit] MBC 1

Airing Arabic entertainment and hourly news to all over the Arab World.

[edit] MBC 2

MBC2 bills itself as the world's first free to air and non stop Blockbuster movie channel, showing a wide range of Hollywood movies, some first run and a library of repeat showings. The channel is the most watched by males in the lucrative 18-32 age group. The channel broadcasts all films with their original English soundtrack and Arabic subtitles, gaining a somewhat cult following amongst English speakers in Europe able to pick up either Arabsat or Nilesat.

[edit] MBC 3

Cartoons and kids shows in Arabic and in English

[edit] MBC 4

MBC 4 is aimed primarily at Middle Eastern women and offers a broad mixture of reality shows (such as Nanny 911, Wife Swap), US & UK comedy and drama series (Malcolm in the Middle, Scrubs, Alias and more), news and current affairs programming from the US networks ABC & CBS plus gameshows Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and magazines like The Insider & Inside Edition. One of the channel's most popular programmes is the talk show Oprah.